Pale Moon 33.0.1 doesn't handle large number of tabs as well as earlier versions Topic is solved

[bobobo]

Operating system: Windows 10
Browser version: 33.0.1
32-bit or 64-bit browser?: 64-bit

After upgrading from 33.0.0 to 33.0.1 I have trouble starting up Pale Moon. It looks like Pale Moon stops the initialization process at some point after starting the browser. This causes problems when the sessionstore.js has a large number of tabs in it that it tries to load during startup, as it apparently also prevents the browser to finish initializing.

The end result is that the browser eventually stops loading (stops hanging) and becomes unresponsive in certain areas (can't perform most actions, e.g. open the "About Pale Moon" dialog), but stays responsive in other select areas (e.g. open the menu bar menus). The menu bar menus also get up and down arrows at the top and bottom of them while still showing all menu items (so I guess it isn't able to detect if the number of items in the menu exceeds a certain max value).

Palemoon_33.0.1_screenshot.png

I can reproduce the issue on a clean portable version of Pale Moon 33.0.1 (win64) by following these steps:
- Open Pale Moon once to create user profile
- Change preferences to "Show my windows and tabs from last time"
- Close Pale Moon
- Add attached sessionstore.js to user profile
- Start Pale Moon

I have also confirmed that a clean portable version of Pale Moon 33.0.0 (win64) using the above steps will make the browser behave as expected.

As a note: the attached sessionstore.js is just a modified version of a clean sessionstore.js that only had one tab in it pointing to duckduckgo.com. The modification was just copying that one tab enough times to reproduce the issue. That said, I didn't keep adding tabs to the sessionstore.js until it started breaking the browser, so it's not like this sessionstore.js contains the exact number of tabs needed to break Pale Moon 33.0.1 on my system. Since the speed Pale Moon can initialize most likely varies depending on the system it runs on, the provided sessionstore.js might not cause the browser to break on someone else's machine. In that case, it might be necessary to alter the attached sessionstore.js to add even more tabs to reproduce the issue.

[billmcct]

Try "Preferences > Tabs" check mark "Don't load tabs until selected"

[bobobo]

Try "Preferences > Tabs" check mark "Don't load tabs until selected"

I already have that option checked. It's also selected by default on a clean Pale Moon installation, so the clean portable versions also have them selected.

Thanks for the advice though.

[therube]

2,000 tabs.
You should have mentioned that.
Even I wasn't expecting that when you said "large number of tabs" .

33.0.1, 1.74 GB RAM, & browser seems non-functional (& this is after CPU usage has dropped to nil).

33.0.0, 1.44 GB RAM, browser up & functional in just about 1 minutes time.


So yes, definitely something going on between the two.


(I started with existing Profiles, disabled any extensions in both, substituted downloaded sessionstore.js for the existing, & fired them up.)

PM x64's, i7-3770s, 8 GB RAM, SSD


And since you asked, SeaMonkey, 2.53.19 beta 1 pre, 20240301220003, new Profile...

SM x64, 1.99 GB RAM, browser up & functional 1 minute 45 seconds.

I did have to respond to the "busy script" message, once, during that time, at which point I said, Continue.
(PM 33.0.1, automatically, by default, stops the script.)

[billmcct]

2,000 tabs.
You should have mentioned that.
Even I wasn't expecting that when you said "large number of tabs" .

33.0.1, 1.74 GB RAM, & browser seems non-functional (& this is after CPU usage has dropped to nil).

33.0.0, 1.44 GB RAM, browser up & functional in just about 1 minutes time.


So yes, definitely something going on between the two.


(I started with existing Profiles, disabled any extensions in both, substituted downloaded sessionstore.js for the existing, & fired them up.)

PM x64's, i7-3770s, 8 GB RAM, SSD

Jeeze, Why would anyone want to load 2000 tabs?

[therube]

That's not the point.
(I myself have been known to use "large number of tabs" .)

[Moonchild]

See if setting dom.max_chrome_script_run_time to 90 helps. I'm guessing it may be terminating the session restore script with the tighter timeout settings when your number of tabs is completely out of scope.

[therube]

I'll note that in 33.0.1, sessionstore.js ended up at a size of 833,463 (rather then its' source of, 1,664,583).

(Heh, forgot about its' backups [as I went to change that pref]. Killed it, that's better.)

[therube]

"90".

Did not help.
Took 2 minutes for CPU to subside, 1.74 GB RAM, DDG page failed to load, & browser basically unresponsive.

Quitting PM 33.0.1 - from the 'X', did work, it did fully exit.
Resultant sessionsstore.js, 804,915 bytes.

[Moonchild]

There really isn't all that much different between 33.0.0 and 33.0.1 - see the repo and release notes. There shouldn't be a significant difference in how huge sessionstores would be handled. The timeout was the only thing that stood out as a possible issue but if restoring that to what it was before doesn't help then I don't know what else to suggest.

[bobobo]

See if setting dom.max_chrome_script_run_time to 90 helps. I'm guessing it may be terminating the session restore script with the tighter timeout settings when your number of tabs is completely out of scope.

That did it for me!

Since it looks like the default was changed, I added it to my profile's prefs.js manually after testing it on the portable version and CP'ed it from there and everything seems to work as expected on both the portable and my installed Pale Moon.
If anyone else has the same issue, you can add the following line to your prefs.js:
user_pref("dom.max_chrome_script_run_time", 90);

Thanks for taking the time to look into this.

[therube]

33.0.0, user_pref("browser.slowStartup.averageTime", 1986);
33.0.1, user_pref("browser.slowStartup.averageTime", 1218);

dom.max_script_run_time, reset to default

set, user_pref("dom.always_stop_slow_scripts", false);


33.0.1 & with that:
1.83 GB RAM, I answered the busy script message, once, with Continue, & it took 2 minutes 31 seconds for the GUI to respond, the DDG page to load, a little bit longer for CPU to totally subside, but the browser now works.

Closing PM was successful & resultant sessionstore.js, 1,664,588 bytes.

That did it for me!

Odd that it did not seem to help my end?

[Moonchild]

Odd that it did not seem to help my end?

Your hardware may not have been as powerful. if it took over 2 minutes for you then you would have had to increase the timeout even more, to e.g. 180 (3 minutes)

[Goodydino]

Why use 2000 tabs? Why not just 2000 bookmarks? The browser would be a lot more responsive that way, and bookmarks are very easy to back up.

[Moonchild]

Why use 2000 tabs?

"Because they can"

As stated though that is actually out of scope so you can run into these kinds of issues (as well as the inherent risk of losing your entire collection of tabs as I have explained ad nauseam in the past)

[billmcct]

Why use 2000 tabs? Why not just 2000 bookmarks? The browser would be a lot more responsive that way, and bookmarks are very easy to back up.

My thoughts exactly. I don't remember ever having more than 100 open at a time.
However I have close to 4000 bookmarks.

[athenian200]

I'm kind of surprised there's not a hard-coded limit somewhere in the browser saying that you've exceeded the maximum number of tabs and have to close some existing ones before you can open a new one.

Like, if I were designing this, I would probably have a hard-coded limit of 500 tabs, and say I don't recommend using more than 250. Or something like that. 2000 tabs is something that is so extreme I am surprised it doesn't crash the browser.

[Moonchild]

I would probably have a hard-coded limit of 500 tabs, and say I don't recommend using more than 250

Mozilla didn't design it this way, and since we've inherited it, we can't really do much about it, as it's be seen as "imposing arbitrary limits" and users would throw an absolute hissy fit.
We don't recommend more than about 200-250 tabs (if you have a powerful enough PC) but if people want to push their luck and take a risk, it's up to them.

[suzyne]

We don't recommend more than about 200-250 tabs (if you have a powerful enough PC) but if people want to push their luck and take a risk, it's up to them.

Reflecting the Your browser, Your way tag line.

I use Tab Kit 2 for the vertical tabs, and when I start having to scroll that list, which happens with over 35 tabs, I begin to feel uneasy and start closing tabs with no regrets because anything important is bookmarked. I am always astounded when people report keeping more than 100 tabs open! But I guess there isn't only one "right" way to use a browser?

[LuftWafflePilot]

I don't even understand how can you work with 2000 tabs. How do you navigate that shit?
Heck, I don't even have 2000 bookmarks!